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3.4.09

Music for Sunday Date, Vol. 22

Hello everybody, hi all! This is Karel and Radio Manzerock is on the air. Today we’ll surf through nice cover songs and great originals from the 1950s and 1960s.

De Strangers were formed as a vocal quartet in 1952 from Gust Torfs , Alex Boeye , Pol Bollansee and John De Wilde. They started to make funny cover versions of the hits of the day. At first they sang mainly in English, and then switched to covering songs in Antwerp dialect.

So, “Casetta in Canada” became “T.V. Truut”, which they recorded in 1960 with Jean Vanhoren ensemble. Nice song, even funny if you understand the dialect ;) with Eurovision vocal intro and outro. That was also their first Antwerp record. Dialect records made them very popular between Flemish people.

Edoardo Lucchina is Italian composer, band leader and accordeon player. The song “Geppyna” is written by Mogol Mangeri. This record was made in the best traditions of Italian 1950s combos. Everything is great here.

Vocal quartet Four Cats is from Helsinki, where they first appeared in Autumn 1958 as Esa Laukan kvartetti. Three members of the quartet started The Four Cats in 1960 as Pentti Lasanen, Esa Laukka, Kai Ruohonen and new member Kaj Lindberg. In the 1960s The Four Cats recorded many successful songs and appeared in a few films. This song was recorded in 1961 for their first solo EP.

Die Montecarlos (a.k.a. Die Blauen Jungs) was an Austrian vocal quartet formed in 1955. Members were Jörg Maria Berg, Leo Hoppe, Rudi Resch and Rudi Kreuzberger. With song “Andrea” The Monte Carlos had their first success in 1956. The following year of 1957 the song “Warum Strahlen Heut' Nacht die Sterne So Hell” got to the 9th place. Originally it is called “Singin’ the Blues” written by Melvin Endsley in 1956. The song was made popular by Croatian-American singer Guy Mitchell, soon followed by Tommy Steele and Marty Robbins.

Not much known about the following Monaco Danceband: where they’re from or who are the members. If you have any info – drop me a line.

The same goes to Swedesh female singer Maj-Britt Asp. Have no much info. Exept her song “Slut, Slut, Slut” (Final, Final, Final) was released on Swe Disc Records in 1965. Accompaniation by Lars Samuelson orkester. You can see the sleeve on the left. Some say, this fury song reminds them an outstanding version of "Shout". Well, just a bit ;) Also, this frenzy song is 1:50 lenght only, so don't be surprised!

The song “I’m Sorry”, which Ronnie Self wrote for Brenda Lee, became “Roň Slzy” in Czech language. The new text was written by Jiří Štaidl and recorded by 16 yo female singer Yvonne Přenosilová. I like this "blues" performance very much.

Stjepan Stanić, nicknamed “Džimi” or “Jimmy”, is one of the greatest Croatian singers of evergreen and jazz. Here is a cover version of a song “Bernardine”, that was written by Johnny Mercer for the film with the same title. Released on Jugoton label in 1959 or 1960 with Croatian lyrics.

Swiss singer Lys Assia was born in a big family, youngest among 12 brothers and sisters. At the age of 16 she debuted as a ballet dancer, in 1942 recorded her first 78 rpm as a singer. Here’s a song from 1959, when Lys was on the top of her fame.

There are more nice songs for today, like famous duo of Gitte Haenning and Rex Gildo singing love song “Sweet Hawaii”, Geoff Stephens’s novelty hit “Winchester Cathedral” sang by John Carter with The New Vaudeville Band formed by Geoff, and Belgian “Bon Appétit” by the great Al Verlane and his so-called Villa Montebello orchestra.